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Tips, Tools, and Tested Methods: Facilitation Skills
for ManagersPeg Carlson, PhD
NCCCMA Summer SeminarJune 19,2015
1. What are your biggest challenges running meetings?
2. What is one skill you would like to take away from today’s session?
In pairs, briefly discuss:
Learn and practice meeting facilitation skills to help participants:
Stay focused
Build on shared interests
Reach decisions that people are committed to implementing
Objectives
Creating Meeting Agendas that Work
1. Frame topics as questions that need to be answered.
Instead of “Office space reallocation”: Under what conditions, if any, should we
reallocate office space?
Instead of “Update on proposed sales tax redistribution”:
What are the implications of the proposed sales tax redistribution legislation for our county?
Creating Meeting Agendas that Work
2. Note purpose of each topic.
To share information
To get input
To make decision
Creating Meeting Agendas that Work
3. Estimate time needed for each topic.
Do the math . . . Number of participants? Purpose of meeting? Complexity of topic?
Creating Meeting Agendas that Work
4. Identify person responsible for leading each topic.
Creating Meeting Agendas that Work
Think of a recent meeting you attended where the purpose of the discussion wasn’t clear.
Rewrite the topic as a question to be answered.
Share your rewrite at your table and discuss how/whether this would have helped.
Individual Reflection exercise:
What typically happens in a meeting when someone makes a comment that you or others see as off-track?
What to do when someone is off-track
Format for testing your inference:“(Name), a minute ago the group was
discussing ___A___, and you said ____B____.”
“I don’t see how ___A___ is related to ___B___, but I might be missing something.”
“Can you say how your comment is related, or if it isn’t, can we decide which topic to discuss now?”
What to do when you think someone is off-track
Scenario: You are in a meeting discussing the budget for employee training and professional development in FY ‘15-16. One participant comments that everyone in his department requests vacation leave at the same time.
Take turns practicing what you would say to this participant and get feedback from others at your table.
Practice
Focusing on Positions
We need weekly
recycling
No, we need
biweekly
What should the solution be?
Focusing on Positions
Weekly
Bi-weekly
So, should we pick up weekly or bi-weekly?
Focusing on Positions
Weekly
Bi-weekly
Well, this isn’t getting us anywhere
Focusing on Interests
I want us to provide a high
level of customer service
I want us to be good stewards of our tax
dollars
What about your solution is important
to you?
Focusing on Interests
Hmm.
Let me think
about this for a
minute.
What solution can we come up with that meets both of your interests?
Steps for Focusing on Interests1. Identify Interests
“Regardless of the specifics of any solution we develop, it needs to be one that…”
2. Agree on interests to consider“Are there any interests that you think should not be taken into account when developing solutions?”
3. Craft solutions that meet interests“Let’s see if we can come up with solutions that meet all of our interests.”
4. If necessary, revisit assumptions then set priorities “What unnecessary assumptions are we making that prevent us from coming up with a solution?”
“Which interests are more important to meet?”
Scenario: Your team is deciding whether to outsource printing or keep it in-house. People have different positions on the issue.
Practice as a group with one person in facilitator role, using the steps on the previous slide to help people identify interests and brainstorm solutions.
Practice
Schwarz, Roger. How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting. On Harvard Business Review website: https://hbr.org/2015/03/how-to-design-an-agenda-for-an-effective-meeting
Schwarz, Roger. Dealing with Team Members Who Derail Meetings. On Harvard Business Review website: https://hbr.org/2013/09/dealing-with-team-members-who-derail-meetings
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